If the Spurs and Heat had all players in their primes,who do you think would win the finals?

You know, if Tmac is playing the 3 and D'in up Lebron like he did Dirk in '05 that's actually enough for me to roll with the Spurs.

Tony Parker shredding the D and Tmac's D being the X factors. Of course, Duncan beasting at 28 in the low post makes the Spurs an inside out ball club with a great defense.

 

I think McGrady's ball-dominant style would take away from Tony Parker's brilliance and cost Manu a bunch of touches. Besides, a prime Battier would make T-Mac work very hard on offense, making his defense even more worthless than it always was.
I think the Heat would win, by a bunch, repeatedly. Ray Allen would average the easiest 24ppg of his career. With Wade driving and kicking, Allen could run his defender ragged thru countless screens. Spurs still have no one to match up with James, and don't say Leonard because he is not enough of a physical presence to stop Lebron, or even slow him down much. Bosh and Duncan would most likely cancel each other out. Lanky, decent rebounders, solid mid-range games with Bosh slightly more athletic and more range, but a lesser defender. And Duncan gets the whiny, perennial all-star calls so he would get the edge in FTAs by a lot. Tony Parker would be brilliant as always but Chalmers would at least make him up the effort.
The outside shooting would be some kinda show. Allen, Battier, Chalmers, Cole, especially Miller would could really light it up from the 3 pt. spot before injuries turned him into a glass statue.
Neal, Mills, Manu, Leonard, I forget who else, but I think the Heat have the advantage there also.
On sheer talent alone, I feel the Heat win going away. Four perennial all-stars to three, with both squads having outstanding complimentary pieces. Much of the Spurs success over the last decade was a result of a superior scheme meshed with a top coach, great leadership and role players willing to pitch in wherever needed and execute to perfection.
The Heat scheme is still evolving somewhat, and adding the top 3 pt shooter of all-time for a possible starting lineup of:
Wade PG
Allen SG
Battier SF
James PF
Bosh C

HEAT FTW

 

I think Lebron would go all Magic Johnson on everybody and have about 15 assists per game. The Heat have a more diverse set of big time players. Tony Parker drives for the Spurs and creates for others. Manu drives and crashes into 3-4 people and faceplants, drawing the foul. T-Mac would put a huge dent in ball-handling time for Parker, who is the creator for the Spurs. I think T-Mac in his prime actually doesn't help the Spurs all that much. Yes he was a gifted scorer, but too ball-dominant for that team. The Rockets always had crap point guards when TMAC was around, no one ever close to Parker's caliber of player. It would definitely mess with the Spurs' smooth-running schemes.

 

that would be the best finals ever

 

As 1 poster posted earlier, It will be Pop vs Riley.

Battle of the ages at the coaching position as well.

 

If the Heat get riley then the spurs get jackson.

Parker /Neal
Manu / Green
Jackson / Leonard
McGrady / Diaw /Splitter
Duncan / Splitter

 

this scenario is ridiculous... you can't take everybody in their primes and make them superhumans, no injury, no fatigue...not possible...

In the end the less injured team, team in best shape wins out but that is hardly predictable
It will go down in history for sure.

 

Lebron James is the best player in that group. With comparable talent you take the best player.

 

Lebron is better than Duncan. No one man make an argument that TD is a goat. You can at least make that argument with LBJ.

 

I'm not going to get into the new users vs. old users argument because it's stupid, but that's a pathetic ad hominem.

Despite the abundance of superstar and star players on this incarnation of the Heat, the Heat are perfectly capable of having a balanced scoring punch while still being dominant offensively, and they too are capable of scoring from anywhere. They have players that are capable as the main ball-handlers for their team, like Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, LeBron James, and Mike Miller, and they have players that are capable at playing off the ball with no problem, like Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller, and Shane Battier. Not every player needs to have good ball-handling abilities for a team to be good at passing, and the rest of the Heat players I didn't mention are at least adequate or above-average at passing.

The Heat can guard everyone on the Spurs not named Tim Duncan, but the Spurs would have a difficult time guarding the Heat's perimeter-oriented bigs in Chris Bosh and Rashard Lewis, who can utilize their size or speed advantage, depending on the matchup.

The Spurs' Rebounding advantage comes mostly from just Tim Duncan and to a much smaller extent, Tiago Splitter, because the Heat have a size/strength advantage at positions other than Center with Wade against Parker, Miller against Green, LeBron against McGrady, Bosh against Diaw, and Lewis against Diaw. My point was that Andersen and Howard's only tasks in the games would be to defend and hack Tim Duncan, who has never really been a good Free Throw shooter. If the Heat could reduce Duncan's impact by tiring him out, the Heat would be able to significantly reduce the Spurs' Rebounding advantage. Where else are the Spurs' Rebounds going to come from?

Yes, I remember when the Spurs were able to tire out opponents with relentless defense, but they never faced a team as stacked as this incarnation of the Heat. With the advantage in athleticism going to the Heat, it's likely that the Spurs would get equally as tired, if not more tired, when trying to keep up.

 

Duncan would put Howard/Anderson in foul trouble in the first quarter. Then what would Miami do?

 

I honestly don't know who I'd pick. On one hand you have Lebron who is still polishing up his game (scary) and is one of the most gifted skillwise/athletically ever against the greatest PF. For everyone saying Tmac would take away from the other players you have to understand that Pop always puts players in their proper role. For me I pick the Spurs simply because of their execution on every play.

I won't deny the talent on either side (I mean we have HOFers on both sides) but Pop is so cunning in his plays, player development is amazing and the fact that he has multiple championships gives SA the edge for me.

If only this was a real scenario...sigh

 

Not likely actually.

 

Have you watched Tracy in Orlando? Guy was Kobe level in terms of individual talent.

 

Put Chris Bosh on him (lol), throw in Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony, then put Howard and Andersen back in the game.

 

Who knows? Way too many question marks but i give it to the Heats anyways.

 

This is Crazy Talk. With Tmac's elevation on his jump shot Battier couldn't even put his hand to his eye to cover his shot. Besides with Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade in their primes where is Battier getting minutes?

Not to mention one of the best parts of Mcgrady's game was his play making and ability to share the ball. Just because he was forced to be a scorer in Orlando when Grant Hill went out does not mean he dominated the ball. When the Rockets went on their 22 game winning streak it was all about the Team effort.

And T-mac played really good defense when he wanted to. And he always showed up for the playoffs. See the series versus the mavs where he was asked to score 30 plus a game and shut Dirk down.

The spurs take this because their pieces fit better together. A prime Wade and Lebron are just too redundant. And Tim Duncan would dominate in the post.

 

TMac in his prime. 'Nuff said.

 

t-mac in his prime, is really scary. Plus Pop knows how to cohesively fit talent together, and that prime Spur team has major talent